2025 GIANT OPEN (FRA)
- Friday, May 9th – Sunday, May 11th
- Saint-Denis, France
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Results
The 2025 Giant Open wrapped up last night from Saint-Denis, France, but not before Canadian Olympian Mary-Sophie Harvey claimed another gold in record-breaking time.
Racing in the final of the women’s 200m IM, 25-year-old Harvey produced a winning effort of 2:09.44, earning the top spot by over 2 seconds.
Behind her was host nation swimmer Cyrielle Duhamel who touched in 2:12.10 followed by Bertille Cousson who bagged the bronze in 2:14.79.
For Harvey, her 2:09.44 outing represented the best time of her career, shaving .13 off her previous PB of 2:09.57 notched in May of last year. She remains Canada’s 3rd-swiftest performer of all time in the event and ranks 5th in the world on the season.
2024-2025 LCM Women 200 IM
McIntosh
2:07.42
| 2 | Abbie WOOD | GBR | 2:08.55 | 04/19 |
| 3 | Kaylee MCKEOWN | AUS | 2:08.58 | 04/21 |
| 4 | Alex WALSH | USA | 2:08.84 | 05/03 |
| 5 | Mary-Sophie Harvey | CAN | 2:09.44 | 05/11 |
Harvey confirmed to SwimSwam that, although she’s been training with Beryl Gastaldello, Yohan Ndoye-Brouard and Maxime Grousset the past couple of weeks, her Montreal-based CAMO is still her primary training spot.
“It’s been going so well these past few years with Greg as my coach and I know we have more to come before I think about changing environments,” she said.
“I think it’s important to see what’s out there and because swimming is such a close-knit community, we have cool opportunities to learn across the globe.
“I’ve really enjoyed training with their group. It was quite different from what I’ve used to but I took it as a challenge and an opportunity to improve on new things. The coaches and swimmers there were great and very welcoming.”
Speaking of Grousset, the 26-year-old French Olympian posted a 51.23 marker to win the men’s 100m fly by a second.
Grousset opened in 23.55 and closed in 27.68 to get the job done ahead of Austria’s Lukas Edl (52.56) and Venezuela’s Jorge-Eliezer Otaiza Hernandez (52.62).
Grousset is the 2023 world champion in this event, having turned in a rapid 50.14 in Fukuoka.
He told the French Swimming Federation after his performance, “I think I can start faster than that in my 100m butterfly, but I let myself go.
“It was the last race, I said to myself “Have fun” and that’s what I did so it’s nice.
“For now, the return is always a little harder, that’s for sure. And anyway, when you’re not fresh, not shaved, the second 50m always hurts your legs.
“I’m very happy, I’m not going to spit on this performance because it’s one of my best performances at a meeting like this, in this period, so it promises great things.
“We worked on the competition, we’re coming back from three training cycles where I hurt my back, I was sick, tired because we worked hard, so now it’s time to recover and gradually move towards the French championships.”
Gastaldello completed her campaign with another win as well, climbing atop the women’s 100m back podium in a new Giant Open record of 59.70.
That scored the sole time in the field under the minute barrier. Dutch swimmer Maaike de Waard hit 1:00.83 and teammate Marrit Steenbergen rounded out the podium in 1:01.02.
16-year-old Tunisian swimmer Rami Rahmouni made his presence known, defeating veterans Marc-Antoine Olivier and Damien Joly en route to 1500m free gold.
The teen stopped the clock at 15:05.43, a new lifetime best by about 5 seconds.
Entering this competition, Rahmouni’s career-quickest rested at the 15:10.48 registered just last month at the French Junior Championships.
His performance here keeps him ranked 4th among all-time Tunisian performers.
Tunisia’s Top 5 Men’s LCM 1500 Freestyle Performers All-Time
- Ahmed Hafnaoui – 14:31.54, 2023
- Oussama Mellouli – 14.37.28, 2009
- Ahmed Jaouadi – 14:43.35, 2024
- Rami Rahmouni – 15:05.43, 2025
- Mohamed Lagili – 15:26.15, 2019
You can read more about this promising freestyle ace and his rise to the upper echelon of distance swimming here.
Additional Notes
- Russian-turned-French swimmer Anastasia Kirpichnikova grabbed gold in the women’s edition of the 1500m free, clocking 16:22.05 to complete her 400m/800m/1500m free trifecta.
- American Michael Andrew put up an effort of 27.35 to win the men’s 50m breaststroke, establishing a new Giant Open record in the process. Dutchman Koen de Groot was next in 27.46, just .04 ahead of Austrian Bernhard Reitshammer who earned bronze in 27.50.
- Cal Bear Lilou Ressencourt of the host nation doubled up on her 200m fly victory with another gold in the 100m fly. She punched a result of 58.60, the 3rd-swiftest performance of her career.
Yaaaas Maxime
What ever happened to her claim about getting drugged?
It wasn’t a “claim” or opinion. It happened, there was follow up, she dealt with it, moved on.
I am loving the rise of MSH! I hope she focuses more on both IM races. Her 4×100 add up (fly/back/brst/free) and 4×200 add up are among the best there has ever been. I think she could go a 2:07-08 in the 200 IM and 4:30-32 in the 400 IM. Regardless, she is exciting to watch, and I look forward to seeing what she can do this summer!
To put in proper context, a time of 2:09.44 in the W 200 IM does not even register in the Top 200 All-Time Performances in the World Aquatics database.
Correct
But a world class swim in May any year.
And if she can taper well it shows promise of 208 or possibly 207 which is medal threat in any given international meet, unless… All of Summer, Kaylee, Alex and Kate all swim it same meet which has only happened once due to scheduling etc.
It would be proper context if the article was about the Top 200 All-Time performances in the W 200 IM. But it is not.
Name a better duo than Relay Names Guy and comparing in-season times from swimmers he doesn’t like to all-time records.
Unrelated but Sun Yang and Pan Zhanle will compete at Chinese Nationals starting this week!
The more important news is that Yang Junxuan is opting out of competing at worlds trials which makes the W 200 free field even weaker and it negatively affects 4 of China’s relays (W 4×100 free/W 4×200 free/Mixed 4×100 free/Mixed 4×100 Medley)
The trio of O’Callaghan, McIntosh, Haughey is hardly a weak field in the W 200 FR at the World Aquatics Championships (Days 3 & 4).
Meanwhile, Maggie MacNeil retired from professional swimming. That negatively affects 2 of the Canadian women’s relays (women’s 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay, women’s 4 x 100 meter medley relay). Furthermore, Kayla Sanchez’s defection to the Phillipines in 2023 does not assist in the Canadian cause.
They all had their moments and repped Canada very well making podiums an automatic goal for women’s relays.
However the swim fan in me can’t help but wonder what could have been if the stars aligned and Taylor circa 2018-19, Penny circa ’21 matched up with Summer and Mary today or part couple years:
Summer 153
Mary 155
Penny 154 ’21
Taylor 154 ’18
Kayla 155 ’21
SUN YANG WILL BE COMPETING AT CHINESE NATIONALS STARTING THIS WEEK!!!!!
Where’s his hammer?